What we are thinking about.
Notes from running 8 publications and building tools for them. Restaurant SEO, local marketing, the boring parts that move the needle.
GameStop’s Bizarre Bid for eBay: A Cash-Strapped Retailer Playing Billion-Dollar Chicken
GameStop’s unexpected bid for eBay isn’t a bold strategic move — it’s a baffling gamble from a cash-strapped retailer with no clear funding plan.
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Amazon’s Sports Ad Play: Using NBA and NFL Rights to Muscle Into Upfront Dollars
Amazon is leveraging its NBA and NFL live sports rights combined with commerce data to crack open upfront ad budgets long dominated by traditional TV networks.
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Ad Tech’s Automation Apocalypse: Who the Hell Is Accountable When AI Runs Your Campaigns?
Ad tech’s shift to AI-driven campaigns demands ironclad contracts and accountability. Without clear guardrails, brands risk losing control—and money—to opaque algorithms.
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The Lazy Marketing Transformation Myth: Why Your AI Time-Saving Claims Are Bullshit
Marketing Week’s latest stats on AI and consumer confidence are just another layer of marketing grift. Real transformation requires hard infrastructure, not lazy buzzwords.
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SMEs Are Betting on Marketers While Big Corps Sit on Hiring Freeze – Here’s Why That’s a Game Changer
Small- and medium-sized businesses are bucking the trend of hiring freezes, confidently expanding their marketing teams while larger companies pull back. This shift reveals where marketing talent should really be headed in 2026.
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Müller’s Decade of Decline Exposed: Why Price Cuts and Partnerships Were Just Band-Aids
Müller’s decade-long decline wasn’t saved by price cuts or partnerships—it was a failure of strategic focus. Here’s why quick fixes never work for brand revival.
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The Delusion of Social vs. TV: Marketers Are Wasting Time Fighting When They Should Be Building
Marketers still obsessed with social vs. TV turf wars are stuck in a dead-end. The future demands unified strategies with creators who operate across both.
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Cancer Research UK Proves Long-Form Storytelling Still Slays in a TikTok World
Cancer Research UK’s Channel 4 documentary series smashed short-form dogma, proving long-form storytelling drives real donations and brand trust in today’s snackable content frenzy.
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Coca-Cola’s Marketing Dominance Is a Lesson Too Many Brands Ignore
Coca-Cola’s marketing mastery isn’t luck or hype — it’s a decades-long grind of cultural domination that leaves most brands scrambling for scraps.
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Gold House’s Gala: A Masterclass in Brand Partnership Theater, Not Just Another Charity Ball
Gold House just redefined what a gala sponsorship should look like—no lazy logos, no hollow activations, just real brand partnerships that advance a cause.
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Why Brands Are Dumping Coachella Hype for Stagecoach’s Country Crowd
Brands like T-Mobile and American Eagle are ditching Coachella’s overhyped scene for Stagecoach’s authentic country crowd, chasing real engagement over influencer noise.
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YouTube’s Brandcast Reveals Google’s Pivot from Social Clout to Creator Trust — And It’s a Mess
YouTube’s latest Brandcast reveals Google’s new playbook: ditch social clout, double down on creator partnerships, and package trust as a brand commodity. Spoiler: it’s mostly corporate spin.
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Disney’s Upfront Playbook: Betting Big on Live Events and the Super Bowl, Not Star Power
Disney’s upfront pitch signals a strategic shift: live events and the Super Bowl are the real stars, not celebrity endorsements. This could reshape ad spend priorities in 2024.
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SEO Agencies in 2026: Why Most Are Just Lazy Middlemen Riding the AI Wave
By 2026, over 70% of SEO agencies rely on generic AI content tools without any real strategic insight, making them glorified middlemen.
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IndexNow: Microsoft’s Overhyped Crawling Protocol That Google Ignores
IndexNow launched by Microsoft in 2021 claims instant indexing but delivers negligible impact on real-world SEO performance.
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Amazon’s Star-Studded Upfront Is a Desperate Play to Outshine Legacy Media in Ad Wars
Amazon’s star-laden upfront is a calculated grab for ad dollars, leaning heavily on live sports and franchise spinoffs while glossing over real measurement and transparency issues.
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CMOs Caught Between AI Hype and Budget Reality—Marketing’s New Torture Chamber
A new survey reveals CMOs are trapped between stagnant media budgets, unrealistic CEO demands, and the AI hype machine. Marketing’s latest crisis is here, and it’s brutal.
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Sports Marketing’s Moment-Based Pivot: Why Media Buys Are Dead and Real-Time Activation Rules
Sports marketing isn’t about buying airtime anymore — it’s about seizing live moments and activating in real time. Brands stuck in old media buy habits are already irrelevant.
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